Thursday, February 19, 2015

Soviet A-90 Orlyonok

Soviet A-90 Orlyonok

As part of the IPMS Ottawa March contest, the challenge was put out to build anything Zvezda (Russian plastic model firm). After searching about, this strange beast came to mind. Designed and built in the 1960's and 70's the A-90 is a ground effect vehicle based amphibian designed to carry troops and a smaller AFV. It has a huge twin contra propeller and turboprop on the tail for cruise power and 2 turbofans in the nose to provide directional thrust under the wings and large flaps for lift.


The Zvezda kit (#7016) is a 1/144 scale and overall fairly basic in its build detail. The greater challenge comes in filling and sanding the wing roots and fuselage seams as well as building up the inside of the nose air intakes.



There isn't a great deal of panel detail on the overall kit and at 1/144 scale I would have expected much to start with. There are relatively few images online of the A-90 since only 3 or 4 were ever made or used in service by the Soviet Navy.



The build is Out of Box with the exception of adding radio antennae wires (stretched sprue painted with black permanent marker) and the windshield antenna made from sprue. This part was too complicated to do accurately and looks poor in close up (the whole assembly is barely 4-5mm across). The windscreen is a poor fit to start with and I masked by hand with tape.


A-90 Orlyonok

 The red marking around the jet intakes is a real pain (if anyone has good tips for curved masking, I am all ears!) and filling and sanding inside the intakes was exceptionally hard as can bee seen by the rough finish below.
A-90 Orlyonok

The tail section is massive with alot of recessed panel lines but overall lacks the detail that it could have had. The real aircraft has numerous APU exhaust ports and rudder details but these are simply left as panel lines. I could have drilled them out and scratch built but left it as is.

A-90 Orlyonok

Big red nose.

A-90 Orlyonok

I pre-shaded the panel lines with black testors (i used matt without knowing it) and then airbrushed 2-3 coats of Testors dark gull grey (matt). The challenge with this kit was the vast surfaces to paint and have it not look monotone. I used some drops of black or white to vary the shape when spraying individual panels and the effect somewhat works.

I used black pigment powder to detail the turboprop and turbofan exhaust weathering. For the panel lines I mixed black and brown testors paint with testors thinners (about 1:5) and "painted" in the panels, while wiping off the excess. in truth if the solution is thin enough, simple capillary action will draw the paint down the lines easily.

A-90 Orlyonok

A-90 Orlyonok

A-90 Orlyonok

A-90 Orlyonok

The decals were fairly thin and ok to use, but come off the paper in seconds so be quick! I used microset and microsol on all decals but clean forgot to gloss coat the model with future or testors satin spray. Luckily there are relatively few decals to add and the large ones have a relatively thin border to deal with. Finally I sprayed the entire model with testors matt dulle coat only to find that it bubbled slightly instead of creating a smooth coat. After a few coats that all ended the same way I left to dry and then lightly sanded all the surfaces with an 800 grit paper which removed most of the imperfections.

A-90 Orlyonok

Build Material Notes:

Kit: Zvezda 7016 1/144 A-90 Orlyonok bought on EBay ($24.99) 
Paints - Testors Dark Gull Grey
Putty: Tamiya
Antennae: Stretched sprue
Decals: Kit supplied with Microset/sol to settle
Matt varnish: Testors All-Purpose DullCote
Weathering: Vallejo Black pigment powder

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Airfix Spitfire Mk1

This had been sat in the stash since Christmas 2013 (present from my dear wife) so it needed building well and with care!

Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk1


I used the Airfix A02010 Mk 1 kit for this build and is the second one I've done so far. I opted for the 1939 paint job for the 19 Sqn RAF aircraft WZ-T having thought that the 2-tone black/white underside was a an odd observer ID aid!



The kit is a nice clean fit, little flash or significant mold marks or lines. The wing and fuselage joint is very good and overall a very nice kit.

I decided to build this straight out of the box and only added a stretched sprue antennae wire and some tin foil seat belts. The instrument panel decal is nice and with the canopy closed it is hard to see any real detail. For my Mk11a version done a few years back I cut open the canopy and door but an aftermarket clear part would be better.

Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk1 finished
The final Spit - weathering was done with a fine brush an aluminum paint around the cowl bolts and the gun ammo hatches as they are frequently opened. Having seen the closeups of 1940s spitfires, they looked a real mess with dents in the skin, scrapes and dirt/ oil galore although many types were simply too new to get weathered before being shot down.

Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk1 build

Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk1 build
The decals were fairly good but i had a hard time getting the fuselage WZ-T to settle down and used copies amounts of Microsol to not effect. I think I forgot to gloss spray before the decals however!

Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk1 build
I'm not sure how much Battle of Britain action this WZ-T aircraft took part in, although 19 Squadron was certainly well involved in the fight. Regardless, i weathered the underside as it had either had a long day at the ranges or involved in air combat.

Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk1 build
The gun port red tape covers were provided as decals but were super fiddly to attach and bend over the leading edge. Several coats of Microsol helped - after that I punched holes in them all for the 'just fired' effect.

Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk1 build
The canopy is fair although a bit on the thick side and the fuselage needed a bit of putty to fill the joins. Sanding around the antennae and light is tricky to avoid removing the features entirely. I mixed up some dirty white spirits with powered black pastel for fuel streaks around the filler cap and flicked droplets around the nose and underside.

Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk1 build
I couldn't resist drilling out the exhaust ports to add some extra details (no resin parts for me!)

Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk1 build

Build Material Notes:

Paints - Testors white and black. Humbrol Green 30 and Brown 118
Putty: Tamiya
Antennae: Stretched sprue
Decals: Kit supplied with Microset/sol
Matt varnish: Testors All-Purpose DullCote
Weathering: Vallejo Black pigment powder